The Let's Play Archive

Part 53: Episode L: Some Time Later...

"Wait for me, Yonah... Wait for me, Kainé... I...I swear..."

Episode L: Some Time Later...

Welcome, ladies and gents, to the second half of NIER. It's certainly been a while, hasn't it? Now you see why I say that NIER has two distinct halves. Half a decade of time passing makes for a rather decisive splitting of the game's events.

Well, no time to talk now... It looks like things have already taken off without us...

We open on the Village where a woman is crying over the slain body of one of the town's guards. His murder...?

Well, it might be hard to see under all that haphazardly cobbled together helmets and shields. But, those are Shades -- heavily armored and equipped Shades at that. It would seem the previously rather mindless shadowy mob has really gotten its shit together in recent years under The Shadowlord.

As the group of armored Shades descends upon their prey, one of them turns and notices something...up in the sky...

Is it a bird...?

Is it a plane...? Not that anyone in this world would know what the hell that is...

Nope! It is goddamn Papa Nier and he is here to absolutely RUIN...

...EVERY SHADE'S SHIT!

So, how have the last five years been on old Papa Nier while we've been away?

Not too great, to be honest. He lost an eye at some point and...possibly a good chunk of his face, given the size of his eyepatch. But feh...depth perception is for pussies anyway. And no, it is never explained as to what happened.

Nier proceeds to eviscerate and stab in the face a few more punk ass Shades steppin' on his turf. That's just how he rolls nowadays.

So, Nier and Weiss have been murdering the shit out of Shades for so long now that Weiss is just plain out of stuff to say as a backseat driver in combat. But, enough of that. Let's get down to business...

Well, in the years since the timeskip Nier has rather hulked out and can now utilize gigantic fuck-off two-handed swords as well as long pointy face stabbing instruments spears, lances, and tridents. We've got one of each newly added to our inventory. But we'll get to that later.

It's killin' time.

So, two-handed swords are ungodly bringers of death and destruction at the cost of being extremely slow. They aren't some Final Fantasy shit where Nier is gonna twirl it around his head a few times for fanfare after a fight. They feel and move like he's wielding a massive hunk of metal that takes a ton of effort to swing.

That said, being basically a boat oar made out of steel, two-handed weapons will almost always guard break shielded enemies, shatter armor, and knock lesser Shades to the ground with each swing. They also have some huge reach and can strike multiple enemies with each flailing of the sword.

Two-handed swords also have a secondary spin-attack which, like it sounds, will cause Nier to do a 360 with the massive blade outstretched. This is pretty great for crowd control (though there is a long lag after the attack completes for Nier to regain his footing.) It also sends any enemies directly in front of Nier flying about 30 yards away, which is just a fun time.

A dozen very, very dead Shades later...

"They just keep coming!"

Nier rushes over to check on the woman he saved...

"Look at him... Look what they've done to him!" "The Shades are even attacking the village now." "And armored ones, no less. This village of yours seems to be changing for the worse." "We didn't ask for this; it's all the Shadowlord's fault! That one day changed everything..." "Five long years..."